Acoording to a source, the Panthers have agreed to terms on a three-year entry level contract with center Scott Timmins, a prospect in juniors.

Timmins was the team’s sixth-round pick in last year’s draft. The 5-foot-11, 191-pound Timmins, 20, had 30 goals and 24 assists in 56 games for Windsor of the Ontario Hockey League and has 11 goals and 11 assists in 19 playoff games.

JM sure can coach. In just his 1st year with the Habs he’s taken them further into the playoffs then they’ve been in nearly 20 years! Those who said he’d be fired (Red Moron aka/and Mr Wiggles), have a better chance of hitting the powerball lotto than JM getting canned! LOL A contract extension and a raise are pretty much assured. Montreal is stoked they hired the right guy.

Okay Potvin. I may have trashed you on numerous occasions for being wrong, but this time you called it right. I apologize for being wrong about JM. Montreal is doing incredible things and JM deserves a good share of that credit for keeping his team intact despite losing key players. I still don’t consider JM a “genius” because I reserve that title for any coach that wins the Stanley Cup or gets Florida into playoffs. Nevertheless, his system I considered to be antiquated apparently still has some merit if it can successfully knock off Pittsburgh and Washington. Given what has happened so far, Montreal will most likely easily beat whoever wins the Flyers/Bruins series and then have their final battle against the Western Conference champion.

Montreal is playing the exact system JM used with the Panthers. It’s a trap that slows things down in the neutral zone and then in their own zone they play with their defenders drawn tight, allowing dozens of shots from the outside. The difference, and the key the Habs’ success is two factors. First, they have a goalie that is playing lights out. Hot goaltending propels teams far in the playoffs. Second, the Habs have something the Panthers never did – a few dangerous scorers who can take advantage on the counter-attack and also on the PP. Gomez, Gionta and more importantly, Cammalleri, are skilled offensive players. Cammalleri is a great scorer and the stupidity of Darryl Sutter in not even making him an offer came home to roost with the Flames’ inability to put the puck in the net all season long. The real genius behind the rise of Habs is actually Bob Gainey. He’s the guy who signed those 3 scorers, plus Hal Gill (who won a ring last season with the Pens), plus a host of other free agents. Gainey completely rebuilt the Habs’ roster. And it is fact that JM had nothing to do with that rebuild. The Habs’ are old school in that regard – the GM and team President run the organization and make personnel decisions and give the coach a team to coach. Nothing more, nothing less.

Nice to see you are being classy about it Panthers No-Goal. I may not know much about Montreal, but when it comes to Florida I think I have proven already I know a lot more than you and I have never been wrong about the Panturds. JM has proven he is competent as a coach (not as a GM), but that does not negate the fact that Florida still stucks and will continue to suck until they make wholesale changes across the entire management tree.

Well, I said I would apologize if Montreal eliminates the Pens so unlike those who trash me, I will man-up admit that I was wrong about JM. I also apologize to all the posters who I argued with about JM. While I still don’t consider JM a coaching “genius” after what he did in Florida, he doesn’t deserve to be called incompetent after leading Montreal to victory over the Caps and Pens. That is impressive no matter how you slice it. Frankly, I did not expect Montreal to go this deep especially after their regular season record. Nevertheless, they have played very well and deserve to be where they are at. Kudos to them. Everyone loves an underdog and these guys are defying all the odds.

Congrats for manning up Red Baron. It is refreshing and I have now raised my opinion of you. Granted, the Panthers have lots of issues but JM was not one of them. I have enjoyed rooting for the underdog Habs.

I’m sorry to sound ridiculous but I read somewhere that the NHL is going to let a Canadian team win the Cup because all the Canadian teams have lost in S.C Finals. Well I believe it now after watching Washington and Pitt literally hand Montreal an Eastern Conference final. Montreal doesn’t deserve to be that far in the post season,especially not going through Washington and Pitt to get there. J.Martin is not a good coach, and we Panther fans know first hand exactly what his coaching is like. I find it disgusting personally to see Mon so far in the post season and I hope they lose to either Boston or Philly.

it doesn’t matter who the GM is in Florida, when you are asked to drive a Yugo and everyone else is driving a BMW you are only going to go so far.

Look at the difference between the two teams. In goal Montreal is able to have confidence that Halak will make all the stops he is suppose to and make some great saves. The Panthers had this confidence with Anderson but don’t with Vokoun. Vokoun has a history of giving up a soft goal at the wrong time.

The 18 players on the ice for Montreal have bought into the system, they do the little things that winners do, they make sacrafices for the team, they are winners.

The 18 players on the ice for the panthers, they don’t make sacrafices (this does not include Booth, Allan and Campbell) . they are not winners and it shows.

How to change this. Put more resources into the scouting and development of players, learn the background of the players learn the intangibles that make a winner and draft these players.

A hockey blog in NY says that the Panthers are “very close” to changing ownership — that “Cliff and Stu” are selling to a NY based group. Has anyone heard anything about this? I wonder if it might same group that was trying to buy the team last year, but restructured to meet the NHL’s requirements? The blog also said that a new GM will be put in place with the ownership change. Maybe the crack journalists at the Sun-Sentinel could verify with the team if this rumor has any merit.

2 reasons Montreal has advanced: Halak and Cammalleri plain and simple. Even if Montreal wins the cup Martin is still nothing more than a mediocre coach to me. Montreal has been outplayed in almost every game yet has managed to win two series, that’s the players on the ice finding a way to win despite Martin’s outshoot us by a 2-1 margin and hope my goalie saves our a$$ brand of coaching. Coaches are probably the most overrated thing in sports especially hockey. Hats off to the Montreal players but what’s JM doing that’s such genius? Telling Halak to stop every shot he faces? Gimme a friggin break…

Never wiggled once. I have the same opinions I’ve always had. JM is a one system coach. He coaches the same trap, year in and year out. And, as posted above, my thoughts on the Habs remain consistent. In case you missed it:

Montreal is playing the exact system JM used with the Panthers. It’s a trap that slows things down in the neutral zone and then in their own zone they play with their defenders drawn tight, allowing dozens of shots from the outside. The difference, and the key the Habs’ success is two factors. First, they have a goalie that is playing lights out. Hot goaltending propels teams far in the playoffs. Second, the Habs have something the Panthers never did – a few dangerous scorers who can take advantage on the counter-attack and also on the PP. Gomez, Gionta and more importantly, Cammalleri, are skilled offensive players. Cammalleri is a great scorer and the stupidity of Darryl Sutter in not even making him an offer came home to roost with the Flames’ inability to put the puck in the net all season long. The real genius behind the rise of Habs is actually Bob Gainey. He’s the guy who signed those 3 scorers, plus Hal Gill (who won a ring last season with the Pens), plus a host of other free agents. Gainey completely rebuilt the Habs’ roster. And it is fact that JM had nothing to do with that rebuild. The Habs’ are old school in that regard – the GM and team President run the organization and make personnel decisions and give the coach a team to coach. Nothing more, nothing less.

Of course JM was fired. He was relieved of his duties as head coach. They offered him the opportunity to stay on as GM only because they didn’t want to have to hire yet another GM and then have to pay JM, Keenan and a new GM, not to mention all the other salaries they were still paying out. Never forget that the only reason the Panthers suffered through those Keenan years was because JM insisted that they hire Keenan as a condition for his accepting the head coach job. Never forget that JM was a key player in what remains one of the worst trades in NHL history. Never forget that in his 5 seasons here, the Panthers never made the playoffs once.

Game 7 tonight.
Habs/Bruins or Habs/Flyers either will be great!
And Sharks/Hawks.
Yes, so sick of Wings & Penguins…

BTW, Hockey Fans!
The Panthers caravan and Panthers Patrol will be at Winn-Dixie in Tamarac this Tuesday raffling off used 2002 Ivan Novoseltev t-shirts…
Send in your season ticket renewal now!
We have a plan to compete for Stanley cups every year!!

Flyers Win – The Flyers are a team with a high amount of talent. Gagne, Briere, Richards and Carter are all elite players. That they struggled so much this season was very odd. The things I’ve read all point to division in the room, much of it caused by Pronger’s having joined the team and dividing loyalties between him and Richards. Of course, they struggled in goal all season and even if they win the Cup, I would expect them to pursue a real #1 guy in the offseason. People too quickly forget that Gagne was one of the league’s most talented scorers until he suffered a series of concussions. Add to that kids like Giroux and hard nosed guys like Carcillo, Hartnell and Asham and it’s a team that really should have competed for a very top spot in the conference. The key for the Flyers is whether their goaltending will hold up. That is still their Achilles heel.

,Mr Wiggles you said that JM would be fired in Montreal by last Christmas. Guess what Dumbo? He’s still coaching. But we dont expect you to man up and admit you were wrong. Just keep wiggling. Its what you do. LOL

Last night the Flyers demonstrated one very good way to beat the trap – you don’t just try to pass around it, but rather you bust through it. Flyers don’t have a single line that the Habs can focus on, which also makes matchups much harder this series.

As for JM being fired, yes he will. Everywhere he goes players become tired of his lack of communication, insistance on playing a single system and management ultimately sees that his style isn’t working. He’s had a hot run in the playoffs, but he’s the same coach whose team backed into the playoffs.

Admit I was wrong? Obviously he wasn’t fired. And I’ve commented on that long ago. I continue to stand by my original comments – ones I’ve nevered wavered on – never, ever. JM is a one-trick pony as a coach. He can only coach one system. His players in Ottawa essentially revolted, eventually ignoring him completely – though that wasn’t hard to do considering that he was known to be completely uncommunicative. Give it a bit more time and JM’s run in Montreal will come to a screeching halt. The trap they played this season was not a success, as they backed into the playoffs after a season of blown leads and trouble scoring 5 on 5 – and were dead last in goals scored in 5 on 5 situations. Montreal excelled on the PP and in OT, where they couldn’t play Jacque’s infamous sit-back trap. Considering the talent he had on his bench, JM’s Habs should have finished way higher than 8th. Of course, the Habs, playing his sit-back trap, actually resembled the Panthers of yore (under his coaching), ranking 25th in win % in games where they held 1st period leads.

Oops, its starting to look like a typical JM coaching job. JM, the one-trick pony of a coach, has no idea how to deviate from the trap and it’s not working so well against Philly. His “brilliant” matchups against the Pens and Caps aren’t so brilliant against Philly, a team that doesn’t rely on just one line to create most of their offense. And without a goalie playing lights out, Montreal’s defense (and their defensive scheme of drawing everyone tight to the goal) isn’t keeping the other team off the board. We’ll see what happens in Montreal, but right now a team that seemed to have all the answers doesn’t have any to offer against the Flyers.

signed Selleck, Timmins, Jenks & Roback…….
send in your season ticket renewals now !
we will compete for stanley cups every year !!
ROFL

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About the author

HARVEY FIALKOV, a tennis-playing sportswriter who grew up in Long Island following the dynastic Islanders, is the new Panthers beat writer for the Sun Sentinel and looking forward to writing about the best professional sports team in Broward County.